Stoke lane stocker the return

Present:

Mark, George, Loz and Jas

As Some may know, my caving partner in crime, George, took a bit of a tumble a couple of years ago, and so we have been doing regular trips getting him back up to full strength. Whilst discussing what to do this weekend he mentioned that he wouldn’t mind going in to Stoke Lane as he fancies diving in there in the future. It’s been 9 years since I last took a camera in there, in fact that trip was one of my first blog posts on UKC, so I agreed to play guide if he agreed to put up with photos….so our plan was made. 

 

I emailed out to ‘The Dudley’ to see if I could recruit a couple of others and we were joined by Jas and Loz.

 

We had all decided on wetsuits under our caving suits and were glad we did when we reached the entrance to find the water tumbling down over the lip. George had been to take a look a couple of weeks ago and said that levels had been a lot lower then, but I assured the group that I had previously done the trip at much higher levels and the weather had been settled the day before and no rain was forecast.

 

On the way in the going was straight forward and the heavy camera box floated gently beside me for much of the entrance series, and through to the Nutmeg grater.  After squeezing through the short contortion, we reached the duck before the sump. The water levels, as expected, were up and the duck itself required a short splutter of water over the face to pass. I headed through first, followed by George, Loz and Jaz. The sump pool looked as uninviting as ever and we nearly lost Loz when she saw the muck floating on the surface. I had brought a mask so went through first, then passed the mask back and was followed by a spluttering Loz, then George and finally Jas.

 

There ensued a couple of hours of photography in the stunning Bone, C.B, Main chamber and throne room before heading for an uneventful, though arduous against the water, exit.

 

    C.B Chamber

 

   Main Chamber

   The Throne Room

 

                Stoke 2 Main Stream Way

 

                Entrance to Bone Chamber

 

   Bone Chamber

A days photographic play in St Cuthberts Swallet

Mr Marris has been absent for a while having moved a little further afield so we were chuffed to have him on a photographic trip in to St. Cuthberts hole this weekend.

Martin Grass was to take us in and a couple of trainee leaders (Luke and Ollie) would join him. With myself and Jess that would make a full team of 6.

We were soon changed and heading down the entrance rift and down Wire Rift. En Route Martin reminded me I'd mentioned on a previous trip that I wanted to photo The Cascade, which we did before heading down to the September series where Brendan grabbed a shot at The Fingers Formation and Curtain Passage before heading on to the Chain Climb to Gour Hall where again I grabbed a shot.

After this we headed up to Long Chamber to photo a Curtain Martin had mentioned before making our way out. At the entrance ladders after wire rift Brendan and I again grabbed the chance to take a shot.....well it was a photographic trip :)

On exiting we thanked our leaders and grabbed a quick cuppa before heading back to the Midlands after a most excellent days play.

The Cascade

Chain Climb

Long Chamber

Entrance Ladders

Present: Martin Grass, Ollie Newton, Luke Edwards, Brendan Marris, Jess Burkey & Mark Burkey

The Mendip Cave Photography Hat-trick

For the 3rd year running well chuffed to have brought home the top prize to Dudley Caving Club. Again this year judges couldn't pick between 3 of the entries and so the winning spot went to 3 shots rather than just the one :)

The Zig Zags in Upper Flood Swallet

Arete Chamber. St Cuthberts Swallet

Aveline's Hole

Winners Presentation

The Goodies 

Winner: Mark Burkey

MCRA Award: Dave Watts 

Distinctions: Dave Watts & Stuart Gardiner

Dave Watts Flickr feed Click Here

Stuart Gardiner Flickr feed Click Here

Mark Burkey Flickr feed Click Here

Eastwater Cavern & The 13 Pots

For Sunday we had been slated to lead a trip in the fairy quarry, but as most of the gang were rather either hung over, heading in for the short round trip or off to do some family caving in Burrington, Jess and I took a day off to play with the camera in Aveline's Hole.

Monday we joined Duncan for our first trip in to Eastwater Cavern to do the 13 pots.

Off to a good start I couldn't fit through the smaller entrance hole and had to use the slightly larger alternative. We were soon making our way to 'The Woggle Press' to see if I would fit through this, which fortunately I did :) and on to the ladder pitch.

The next few hours were truly great fun, sliding down smooth polished bedding planes and clambering up and down the pots themselves before doing an awkward vertical squeeze and on to a rift that would require us to chimney across whilst trying not to slip down.

Duncan had done a great job leading us and was excellent at gauging what I would and would not fit through. On our way out I had another go at the entrance squeeze and this time managed to marshmallow my way through :)

After a quick shower at the Wessex and pint at the Vic, we said our goodbyes and headed back home after a great weekends play.

Aveline's Hole

Present: Duncan Simey, Jess Burkey & Mark Burkey.

A second team of Neil, Ollie, Mike & Tom also joined us in the entrance series before heading off to explore digs and head back out of the woggle press.

Lionel's Hole

This was on the list of caves for our pre-Christmas trip on 10th December but after messing about in Goatchurch (see Caver Keith Goes In Search of the Real Santa Claus) and Sidcot Swallet (see Caver Stuck in the Lobster Pot) we ran out of time.
I'd done the round trip in Lionel's many years ago and my vague memories didn't prepare me for the complexity of this small cave, not to mention its sporting nature.
Route finding took some time and when we found the way on we then found that mark wouldn't fit through the first squeeze! We consulted the survey and found an alternative route but then managed to go off route at the end of the traverse. Eventually back on track we found the next squeeze and the squeeze in the steamway. Kay and I went through but the going didn't get any easier after this. We had read that the round trip involved 6 squeezes and Mark didn't want to get most of the way round only to have to turn back. With this and the call of coffee and cake at the Burrington Inn we decided to cut the trip short and engage in our favourite pastime - consuming vast quantities of cake.
Some video was taken which may eventually make it to YouTube but perhaps a return trip is needed to finish filming the system - thin cavers only need apply.

Jess and the second squeeze

The Team: Keith, Kay, Jess and Mark.

Withyhill Cave

On 1st November 2015 Dudley Caving Club members Phil, Ian, Brendan, Mark and myself set off for the Mendips to visit Fairy Quarry to explore Fernhill and Withyhill Caves. We explored Fernhill Cave but never got to see Withyhill. In fact I didn’t get home until 18 days later and didn’t see the inside of a cave for another 6 months. Last year I got to do Withyhill twice (15th May & 27th November) and managed to take some video. It’s a bit rubbish but the cave is fantastically decorated and hopefully the video gives a flavour of its beauty.

Caver Stuck in the Lobster Pot, Sidcot Swallet

We all have bad days, days where nothing seems to go right, days when things that are usually easy such as a particular obstacle in a cave become next to impossible. These incidents always provide great amusement for the spectators and over the years they have provided superb material for my caving videos. Today I have learned a new word, schadenfreude, and I have to plead guilty to engaging in a lot of schadenfreude during my caving career - great fun, happy memories. However I've rarely been on the receiving end, and never when some joker is pointing a video camera in my face. Please DO NOT share this film as is not up to the usual high standard expected by viewers of Caver Keith videos. It is being published under great duress and at the insistence of my caving chums who feel that fans of my videos would like to see me suffering from extreme embarrassment. I tried telling them that the footage had been lost - they didn't believe me. "Not exactly lost but corrupted when my computer crashed," I replied. They still wouldn't believe me. Neither would they believe that my computer had been hacked and the raw footage stolen. Eventually I had to give in and show them the footage, and now as a penance I've had to make it public.

Grebe Swallet, A Parallel Universe!

As Mendip Digfest virgins this year we eagerly scanned the list of diggers looking for willing volunteers/ victims for their dig,  to see which one seemed the most alluring.

Chris Binding's looked most tempting; 'Absolutely guaranteed to go'.

How could we pass by the opportunity to join a dig that promised so much? (Though 'excellent picnic facilities' was also a strong contender. )

We therefore met up with Chris on a lovely sunny morning to go and find miles of new , cavernous passage in Grebe Swallet.

On the way Chris gave us a potted history of the cave and pointed out how the landscape and geology of the area indicated that cave passage to rival Upper Flood was almost definitely waiting for us to just tap in and discover it.

In my mind's eye I saw us emerging into huge chambers and having to be careful we didn't get lost as we wandered past huge crystal white formations. " Wow,  like a parallel universe! “ I exclaimed.

The entrance was heavily guarded by an army of slugs, which nearly cut short my caving trip , but the lure of fame and fortune won and soon we were underground.

Chris gave us a guided tour of the known cave and mine which was thoroughly enjoyable. As a big Willie Stanton fan I fully appreciated how much of his engineering had gone into the cave and how well it had served to protect delicate areas and historical artefacts.

Our role was to clear and make good two areas where Chris and the rest of the team had been 'teasing' the rock to see what lay beyond.

At the first location Chris spent his time mostly throwing rocks at Mark,  while I played with mud.
At Perdition the dig face and air space was limited,  so I stayed back out of the way while the boys took turns prising away at the heavy mud and rocks. Once they had both worn themselves out,  I was invited to  'Have a Go'.

Easing away at the mud and brittle calcite was quite fun! I was just getting into the swing of it when the boys got bored and decided that we probably wouldn't be able to make any further progress that day. rolling the last few bits of mud towards me, to leave it tidy,   I found that my hand was now waving about freely on the other side of a calcited wall! A Void!

The next couple of hours passed in a flurry of activity as Chris and Mark sweated and cajoled the calcite wall and mud floor,  revealing a tantalizing decorated rift passage beyond . More of the mud floor was pushed aside until Chris could wriggle forward  into the passage to see where it led to . An exciting prospect lays ahead - the rift pinches in,  but a dark void can be observed beyond it - a Parallel Universe? ?

A quick guestimate of the amount of passage gained was about 5 metres,  which Chris thinks is possibly a Mendip Digfest record!
I certainly think there is about 5 tonnes of mud to be cleaned off the suits. ..

The rest of Digfest was really enjoyable too, lots of great people and plenty of fun and Potholer. Who can ask for more?

The Dig Face On Arrival (Photo Christopher Binding)

Mark Furtles with a Crowbar (Photo Christopher Binding)

And Creates A Filthy Hole (Photo Christopher Binding)

And Keeps Creating Till He Fits! (Photo Christopher Binding)

Chris crawls over the pit to check out the newly discovered passage (Photo Mark Burkey)

Trip report: Jess Burkey

Present: Christopher Binding, Jessica Burkey & Mark Burkey

Mendips Photography Competition 2016

After having my photographs lost for a couple of weeks I was starting to wonder if they'd turn up at all.
Fortunately they did and with the help of Dudley members we managed to get a few shots that won the competition for a 2nd year running with a triptych of shots.

Equally deserved shots came from Stuart Gardener awarded runner up with a great shot of Lucy Greenwood at the old 40 in Swildons and then Dave Watts took 3rd with a shot from Withyhill.

Nervous to be in front of the camera I found courage in the free wine provided and continued in the same vein at the Hunters Inn later that evening as Jess and I met up with others for the beginning of a great weekend celebrating Digest.

The winning images:

Jess at the Swildons 20ft pitch

Marc in GB main passage

Martin Grass at Pulpit Pitch. St Cutherberts Swallet

Fairy Quarry .......The Return

After a short tip in OFD Keith felt ready to return to the scene of his unfortunate accident 6 months before.
This time Keith went fully harnessed and belayed down in to Fernhill accompanied by Ian and John to take in the splendid curtain formations whilst Kermit, Brendan and I waited at surface.

With this demon put to rest we headed in two groups in to Withyhill for an afternoon of pleasant caving and pretty formations, pausing often for photo opportunities.
At Green Lake chamber Kermit saw me struggle in through the awkward squeeze and muttered under his breath words to the effect of.....if that larger fellow can do it then so can I!......perhaps not the exact words he used ;)
With a little puffing and panting he emerged victorious in to a chamber he hadn't visited in 40years! After some smiles and photos we continued on to the end of our trip, Column Chamber, before making our way out again.
Keith was feeling a little sore by the time we exited and little dehydrated and so this was used as a good excuse to stop off for a drink in the pub before heading off our separate ways.

Ian admires a magnificent curtain just before Pearl Chamber (Photo Mark Burkey)

Keith and John in Column Chamber (Photo Mark Burkey)

Kermit admires the formations in the entrance series (Photo Mark Burkey)

The Baobab Tree (Photo Brendan Marris)

Jack at Elephant Trunk Chamber (Photo Brendan Marris)

Jack admires a curtain in Elephant Trunk Chamber (Photo Brendan Marris)

Kermit back in Green Lake Chamber (Photo Brendan Marris)

Present: (Party 1: Brendan, Kermit & Jack) (Party 2: John, Mark, Kieth & Ian)

Doing things the Wet Way in Swildons

It’s a little known fact that Wells Museum has an excellent Caving Exhibition, and each summer a photographic competition of Mendip caves is held. Mark and Brendan have both been placed highly in previous years, so Mark and I headed down to the Mendips to see if he could get any decent shots of Swildons Hole for this year’s competition.

Within feet of the entrance Mark had me climbing up and down through the water to position flashguns  (“Well there’s no point in both of us getting wet!”)  until one of the guns took on some water and blew up.  With some of the older flashguns also refusing to work, Mark’s original plan of taking photos of me lying in Sump 1 was abandoned, (Yay!) and we decided to try for a pitch shot on The Twenty.

We followed our noses along the dry high-level passages until we came to the stream way. When we got to the pitch we were surprised to find a group of young military personnel practicing their SRT, so while we waited for them to finish Mark sussed out a vantage point for the camera.

Whilst rigging the ladder pitch Mark tossed me the end of a rope to hold, and called something out, but I couldn’t make out what he said. To my surprise, he then pulled the rope out of my hands and threw the whole thing down the pitch! Apparently he’d asked me to attach my end to the P bolt… Good job we had another rope with us, and once we had retrieved the first one we were ready to start the photoshoot.

While Mark hung around with the camera I was Up the ladder, Down the ladder, Along the passage, Up the rift, Under the water, Up the ladder, Down the ladder.. . Smile! My worries about getting cold as I was already wet through were completely unfounded.

With time moving on and the mill to get back to, we derigged and made our way back out of Swildons along the Wet Way.

Swildons Hole Entrance Series

Swildons 20ft pitch

Present: Jessica Burkey, Mark Burkey

Sundays play in GB

Sunday morning saw me, Mark, Marc and Brendan back at the Priddy Good Farm shop for breakfast, this time with Chloe and Mark BURG… The plan was to go into GB, so we picked up a key from the Wessex.  Marc and Mark BURG… hadn’t been into GB before and were amazed how spacious it is compared to the caves we had explored the day before.

We followed the usual round trip route (apart from Mark who ended up climbing up the waterfall by mistake??) and explored every nook and cranny en route to the ladder extensions.  Once Mark had rigged the ladder, we all climbed up and were soon at the unpleasant duck. The water in this was fairly low, not enough to drown even Brendan, but enough to wet us all through thoroughly. Once through we started looking for the way up into the Great Hall.  Brendan pointed out the route, and while Mark went up the alternative overhanging climb, the rest of us did our best to push through the tight squeeze up into the huge chamber, with mixed success. A quick explore and photo of the chamber and it was time to head back down and onwards to Bat Passage.

This passage never fails to wow as it is immensely pretty, with pristine white formations. It is a real shame that some of these have muddy handprints on, and we discussed coming back on another date for a cleaning session.

On the way out of the cave some photos were taken in the main chamber, and then we were all out in good time for the drive home.

Entrance Climbs

The Great Chamber

Main Chamber

Present: Mark, Mark 2, Marc, Chloe, Jess, Brendan & Alli from the Shepton

Trip report Jess.

Fairy Quarry Wriggles and Giggles

Saturday saw a good number of Dudley Caving Club enjoying a breakfast at the Priddy Good Farm Shop. As Keith often says, “No refunds once the breakfast is consumed” , so despite it being really chilly, off we went to Fairy Quarry to go caving.

Our first destination was the Fairy Cave to Hilliers through trip. Mike and Richard were keen to route find, so they went ahead of the group and we did our best to send them down all the tight horrible bits that weren’t the way on. 

The tight squeeze on the way to Hilliers was as wet and nasty as ever but posed no problems to the group (once Mark had rearranged his ribs) and soon we were at the connection with Hilliers. Pointing out that we were not far from the entrance to Hilliers, we nonetheless headed away from it and into the cave to explore it fully.

With the boys trying to remember what they had read in the survey (which they’d left in the car) Mike got sidetracked down a tight rift that went nowhere, much to the amusement of Lucy, Mark and Brendan, while Marc carried on with Rich to route find, with me following.

Marc has done a few trips with Dudley but perhaps Hilliers has not turned out to be his favourite… it could be described as “ a couple of hundred metres of boulder choke, with one or two places that you can stand up in”, and quite a few times he was heard to say “are you sure this is the way on?”

The Red Room at the end, though, is really quite spectacular, and there are some very pretty sections en route too.  Once Marc and Rich had had a good look round, we set off back towards the entrance, meeting the others on the way. When Rich heard how Mike had struggled to get back out of the rift, he was determined to have a go himself but found it easy compared to some of the contortions we have already been through.

With Rich leading the way we headed out. At one point I looked up to the left at a familiar-looking climb, but ignored it and followed Rich instead through ever more flat-out crawls, until he realized that we were heading towards the sump that links Hilliers Cave to Hillwithy Cave – oops! Turning back and looking again at the climb up, I remembered that it was indeed the entrance to Hilliers, so up we went.

After a short wait in freezing conditions, Kermit arrived to take the group into Shatter Cave, where they were very impressed by the lovely formations. Mark and I went off to take a couple of pictures back in Hilliers while we waited, but we soon got far too cold and were dressed and sitting in a warm van by the time the others got back. A very good day!

Hillier's Entrance Rift

Present: Mark, Marc, Jess, Rich, Brendan, Mike, Lucy & Brendan

Trip Report Jess

The Dudley Do Hidden Earth 2015

It started with a poster....

Hidden Earth Poster features Lucy Collins and Mike Bonner 

Lighting Keith Edwards - Photo Brendan Marris

And then a lecture programme was compiled by Emma Porter.

A crack team of people descended on the Churchill Academy to set up the conference on Friday 25th September. This included a massive presence from the following Dudley Members:-

• Emma Porter, Mike Clayton
• Bartek Biela, Paulina Biela
• Richard Amor-Wilkes, Monika Amor-Wilkes, 
• Firas Fayad and Dea Wilkins.

Photos were entered in the Photo Salon by Mark Burkey and Brendan Marris
Videos were entered in the Video Salon by Keith Edwards
A digital artwork was entered by Keith Edwards
The Dudley T-shirt was entered into the T-Shirt competition
A lecture was given on the Club's trip to Mallorca pulled together by Jess Burkey

We were joined on Saturday by Mike Bonner, Lucy Collins, Ian Millward and Richard Gibbons.

The Club visited the UKcaving stand to collect a prize for cave conservation work.

The team visit Jane Allen at the UKcaving stand

After two days of drinking, visiting lectures, drinking, visiting the exhibits and stands, drinking ...
you get the picture! We came to the closing ceremony and the announcement of the winning entries.

Video Salon - Winning Entry

The best video at the Video Salon was judged to be "What It Takes To Get The Shot" by Keith Edwards

Photo Salon - Premier Trophy

The Premier Photographic prize for the best panel of five photos - Mark Burkey

Here is the set to marvel at

Garlands Pot - Photo Mark Burkey

OFD III Traverses - Photo Mark Burkey

Hilliers Cave - Photo Mark Burkey

Ogof Draenen - Photo Mark Burkey

Twll Gwynt Oer - Photo Mark Burkey

Photo Salon - Best Photo in Show

Winner - Judged by Delegate Ballot

Garlands Pot - Photo Mark Burkey

Photo Salon - Best Colour Print

Winner - Judged by Panel

Straw Gallery - Photo Brendan Marris

Distinction - Judged by Panel

Tooth Cave - Photo Brendan Marris

Photo Salon - Fun Shot

Winner judged via audience laugh-o-meter

Loz pushing a squeeze in Giants - Photo Mark Burkey

Photo Salon - Best Digital Image

Distinction - Judged by Panel

Streaks Pot - Photo Brendan Marris

Distinction - Judged by Panel

Ogof Gofan- Photo Brendan Marris

T-Shirt Competition - Best in Show

Winner - Judged by Delegate Ballot

Present: Emma Porter, Mike Clayton, Bartek Biela, Paulina Biela, Richard Amor-Wilkes, Monika Amor-Wilkes, Dea Wilkins, Mark Burkey, Jess Burkey, Ian Millward, Lucy Collins, Firas Fayad, Mike Bonner, Keith Edwards and Brendan Marris